The commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 4,890,534 Lubricating Die For Cartridge Reloader issued Jan. 2, 1990 is herein incorporated by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to reloading of firearm cartridge cases and in particular it relates to a multiple purpose die for a reloading press used in the process of reloading cartridge cases.
2. Background of the Invention
Cartridge cases are reloaded by individuals for a variety of reasons. The individual can control the powder charge, the sizing of the bullet, the resizing of the case, the seating of the bullet, and probably one of the most important factors is that the individual can lower the cost per round of ammunition.
When a cartridge case is fired, the case is deformed by the explosive force of the powder igniting to expel the bullet retained in the neck of the cartridge. The explosive force not only stretches the cartridge case longitudinally, it also expands the body and neck of the cartridge case. The neck is the open ended section of the cartridge case in which the bullet was seated.
To insure that the cartridge case is of proper size and is of permitted tolerance, the individual will resize the case prior to reloading.
When the cartridge case is resized,.the diameters of the body and neck must be "shrunk" down to the original tolerances. The resizing of the case is performed in a die that surrounds the cartridge and as the cartridge is forced into the die the external diameters of the body and neck of the cartridge are reduced. This "shrinking" or reduction of the external diameters also affects the internal diameter of the neck. The internal diameter of the neck will ultimately receive a bullet in the reloading process. It is therefore important to have the internal neck diameter resized to ensure the proper seating of the new bullet. The proper seating of the bullet in the neck that has the proper internal diameter assures repetitive exit velocities of the bullets from the muzzle of a firearm from cartridge case to cartridge case having the same powder charges.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide means for resizing a cartridge case to provide uniformity of the case not only in regard to the external body and neck diameters, but the internal diameter of the neck as well.